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A Florida grand jury says the DeSantis administration misappropriated $10 million in taxpayer money by diverting it from a Medicaid settlement into the Hope Florida Foundation, where it was quickly routed through nonprofit organizations and ultimately into political committees and the Republican Party of Florida.
The 19-page report, which was filed under seal in January and obtained by CBS News Miami after months of efforts to keep it from public view, concludes that the money was supposed to reimburse Florida taxpayers after health care giant Centene Corp. overbilled the state for prescription drugs.
Instead, the grand jury found, $10 million of the $67 million settlement was directed to Hope Florida, a nonprofit connected to first lady Casey DeSantis’ initiative. Within weeks, the money had moved through two other nonprofits and into political accounts.
Much of the money ultimately supported efforts to defeat Amendment 3, a 2024 constitutional amendment that would have legalized recreational marijuana in Florida.
The grand jury said it found “insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally,” largely because no one involved in approving the transfer would accept responsibility for the decision.
But its conclusion about the money itself was blunt.
“We can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes,” the grand jury wrote, calling the $10 million transfer a “misappropriation.”
The findings put renewed scrutiny on several senior Florida officials, including Attorney General James Uthmeier, former Attorney General Ashley Moody and Jason Weida, who was secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration at the time and is now Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff.
Following the money
The money trail outlined by the grand jury is at the center of the controversy.
Florida was owed more than $67 million after Centene was accused of overbilling the state under the Florida Healthy Kids program. After years of negotiations, the DeSantis administration reached a settlement with Centene in September 2024.
The original settlement would have returned the full amount to the state. But the agreement was repeatedly revised.
On Sept. 12, 2024, the state changed the deal so that $62 million would go to Florida while $5 million would be directed to Hope Florida.
The next day, the allocation changed again. The amount going to the state dropped to $57 million, while the Hope Florida payment doubled to $10 million.
The grand jury found no clear explanation for why the amount going to Hope Florida increased so quickly.
It also questioned why the $10 million was sent to the foundation within seven days while Centene was allowed more than a year to repay the remaining $57 million to taxpayers.
“The Centene settlement itself seems rushed as it materialized rapidly after years of inactivity,” the grand jury wrote. “Then, once reached, it took a mere 7 days to fund.”
The grand jury said the timing was significant because the 2024 election was only 45 days away.
Once the money reached Hope Florida on Oct. 4, it did not remain there for long.
The foundation approved two $5 million grants to outside nonprofits. One went to Secure Florida’s Future, while the other went to Save Our Society from Drugs.
According to the report, the nonprofits then transferred most of the money to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee controlled by Uthmeier.
A forensic accountant who reviewed bank records for the grand jury found that Uthmeier’s PAC received $8.5 millionfrom the two organizations.
Keep Florida Clean then transferred $7 million to the Republican Party of Florida and another $1.23 million to the Florida Freedom Fund, another political committee chaired by Uthmeier.
The grand jury found that both nonprofits had represented in their grant applications that the money would not be used for political purposes.
Yet much of the money was transferred into Uthmeier’s political operation within days.
Who knew what?
The report identifies Uthmeier as a central figure in the events surrounding the settlement.
Uthmeier was DeSantis’ chief of staff when the Centene settlement was negotiated. The grand jury found that he was “in a position of authority” over officials involved in the settlement and that testimony showed he had a role in directing money after it reached Hope Florida.
The grand jury also identified Moody, who was attorney general when the settlement was negotiated.
Moody’s chief deputy, John Guard, signed the final settlement agreement after consulting with Moody. The grand jury found that Moody was aware of plans to direct $10 million to Hope Florida and authorized Guard to sign the agreement.
Guard told CBS News Miami that settlements of this type were not unusual and that the Centene agreement had been handled through the ordinary course of business.
But the grand jury’s report indicates Guard had reservations about the arrangement.
According to the report, Guard recognized that the $10 million was taxpayer money and believed Florida law required the Legislature to determine how such money could be spent.
He also expressed concern about the political consequences of sending the money to Hope Florida.
The agreement was subsequently rewritten so that the Agency for Health Care Administration, rather than the attorney general’s office, would direct the $10 million payment.
The grand jury described the change as resolving Guard’s political concerns by making the diversion “AHCA’s problem rather than the AG’s problem.”
Guard later said he did not learn that the money had been transferred from Hope Florida into political committees until months after the 2024 election.
Neither Moody nor Uthmeier testified before the grand jury.
A settlement made during a hurricane crisis
The grand jury also questioned how quickly the settlement was approved and whether the chaos surrounding Hurricane Helene helped obscure what was happening.
Hurricane Helene struck Florida’s Panhandle on Sept. 26, 2024. The following day, Cassandra Pasley, chief of staff for the Florida Department of Health, testified that she was pulled aside at the state’s Emergency Operations Center and asked to sign the settlement agreement.
Pasley said she had never seen the agreement before and did not know a settlement was being negotiated.
She nevertheless signed it.
The grand jury found that Pasley was unaware that any of the settlement money would ultimately reach political committees and said she would not have signed the agreement had she known.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky also signed the agreement. He testified that the provision sending $10 million to Hope Florida was “atypical,” but that he was satisfied after learning the attorney general’s office had approved it.
Less than three weeks later, Hurricane Milton struck Florida.
Amid the two hurricane emergencies, Hope Florida moved the $10 million through the two nonprofits that would ultimately send millions to Uthmeier’s PAC.
Joshua Hay, who chaired the Hope Florida Foundation at the time, testified that the foundation’s largest previous donation had been $100,000.
He said he was surprised by the $10 million payment and acknowledged that the foundation lacked the infrastructure to efficiently distribute such a large sum to people in need.
The money was gone within 25 days.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Hay told the grand jury.
The political connection
The nonprofits receiving the Hope Florida grants were not simply charitable recipients.
On Oct. 11, 2024, Uthmeier contacted Amy Ronshausen, executive director of Save Our Society from Drugs, and encouraged her to seek money from Hope Florida, according to the report.
She was subsequently awarded $5 million.
Within a week, she transferred $4.75 million to Uthmeier’s Keep Florida Clean PAC.
Secure Florida’s Future received the other $5 million. The organization then transferred $3.75 million to Keep Florida Clean.
The grand jury concluded that the two organizations had mischaracterized the purpose of the money in their applications because they said the funds would not be used for political purposes.
The transfers occurred as Florida’s political campaigns were entering their final weeks.
The money was ultimately used in the political fight over Amendment 3, the recreational marijuana initiative that appeared on the November 2024 ballot.
The grand jury found that the connection between the Medicaid settlement and Hope Florida’s stated mission was difficult to establish.
“We fail to see the nexus between Hope Florida and the Centene settlement,” the report said.
The grand jury also noted that the money remained in Hope Florida’s account for only a matter of days before being distributed elsewhere.
DeSantis and Uthmeier deny wrongdoing
DeSantis has rejected allegations that the settlement was improper.
Asked about the controversy Wednesday, the governor said he was not involved in the settlement agreement but was “very happy with how everything was done.”
He has previously called the investigation a “hoax” and accused critics of using it to smear his wife.
Uthmeier has similarly denied wrongdoing, calling the investigation a politically motivated “witch hunt” and saying nobody involved had done anything wrong.
His office has also emphasized that Florida law protects the confidentiality of grand jury proceedings.
The report, however, represents the most detailed public account yet of how the $10 million moved from a Medicaid settlement into political accounts.
Democrats have seized on the findings ahead of the November elections, arguing that the report demonstrates a misuse of taxpayer money by senior Republican officials.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, called the findings “blatant corruption.”
Democratic attorney general candidate Jose Javier Rodriguez said Uthmeier should resign, while Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon accused officials involved in the transaction of betraying Florida families.
Republicans have pushed back, pointing to the grand jury’s conclusion that there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges.
What the grand jury wants changed
Although the grand jury did not recommend criminal charges, it called for significant changes to how Florida handles money recovered through government settlements.
Its first recommendation was that money received by the state from any source should be deposited into the state’s General Fund, with meaningful penalties for officials who violate that requirement.
The grand jury also recommended clearer rules governing how organizations can use taxpayer money, along with requirements for tracking and monitoring those funds.
The recommendations are aimed at preventing another situation in which money owed to taxpayers can be redirected outside the normal state budget process.
The grand jury ended by reaffirming its central finding: the $10 million was taxpayer money and should have been treated accordingly.
“As taxpayer money,” the report states, “it should have been treated as such instead of being allocated for partisan political purposes and without transparency.”
The findings do not establish that any individual committed a crime. But they raise a much broader question about who should control public money — and whether political officials should be able to redirect taxpayer funds through nonprofits without legislative approval or public scrutiny.
For Florida voters, that question is likely to remain at the center of the Hope Florida controversy as the state’s political battles move toward November.
